POINT LACE. During the sixteenth century it was often a difficult matter for ladies to secure patterns for the various forms of embroidery. Often these were drawn on parchment or copied. on samplers which were passed from hand to hand. Probably the first printed pattern-book was published by Pierre Quinty, of Cologne. in 1527, and was entitled New and Subtic Book Concerning the Art and Science of Embroidery, PrinT s, Tapestry-Making, as 11'01 as Other Crafts Done with the Needle. After this many other pattern-books were published from time to time, and by studying these one is able to trace the transition flour white thread embroid ery to needle-point lace. Scion we find work called panto in acre, in which the embroidery is edged with Vandyked points which are wholly of needlework. without any foundation of cloth. Another step brings us to work not simply (Aged, hut wholly made in this way: in other words. to the production of actual lace. The development of it true lace was earliest carried to perfection in Venice. At first it was similar in pattern to the cut and drawn work, but toward the end of the sixteenth century these geometrical designs were replaced by elaborate floral and scroll ornaments which culminated in the delicate productions of the eighteenth cen tury. Venetian lace gradually became less hold and effective in design and more delicate in exe cution. as lace became less worn by men and more by women. This is seen by comparing the earlier laces with the tel rose point : the latter is composed of delicate scrolls held to gether by tiny bars arc] freely spotted with small blossoms. From Venice the art. of lace-making spread into France. and early in the reign of Louis XIV. his minister Colbert established a lace-making company enjoying exclusive privi leges, with a general shop at Paris. the principal centres of lace-making being villages where the art was already practiced. notably Aleneon. (See Despierres, Histoirc du point d'Alcncon, Paris. ltitit;.) At first the laces produced. which were called 1111(1(.r the general name of point de France. were mere imitations of Venetian pat terns: but gradually distinctly national edges were evolved. The manufacture of needle-point lace also spread to Flanders, where a lace of most delicate quality was made. on account of the superior fineness of Belgian flax.
inc general point lace is made by first. stitching
a thread along the outlines of a pattern on paper, parchment. or cloth, and then covering and eon fleeting the pattern-thread with stitches. Of course in actual practice this method is subject to endless and variations, and cer tain te•linieal terms are used in describing the various processes and products, the principal of which are the following: The unfigured back gromn1 of lace is called the reseals. Tice pattern is the motif. Point de re/in is lace worked on a parchment pattern. Brides are the simple lines with which the pattern portions are some times connected. liode.s are elaborate variations of the reseal'. Pirots are little loops worked on a pattern to add to its effectiveness. Onrdonnets are stout threads, sometimes of horsehair, em ployed to outline a pattern. During later times the term guipure (see guipure later on) was applied to all laces where the design was con nected with simple bars or ties, while laces with regular meshed backgrounds (reseaux) ,were cal led den /Nies.
The process of making point d'Alencon lace can perhaps best be understood by reference to the accompanying plate illustrating the various steps in the work. The different classes of work are assigned to different workers successively, and the fabric passes through many bands before it is finally complete. Fig. I shows the design, which is drawn on white paper. It is then pricked with a needle arc a piece of green parchment on which the grounding is indicated (Fig. 2). A colored design in which the portions to be worked out by the different workers are indicated is next and is shown in Fig. 3. The first worker traces out the design on the parch ment (In trace) as shown in Fig. 4. The next supplies the coarser groundwork (brick). indi cated on the color scheme by yellow and shown in Fig. 5. Next the tiner grounding (eerscan), which corresponds in the odor plan to the green, is worked in and then the design itself is worked in solid buttonhole stitch (•cmpli). This is in dicated by the white 011 the color plan. Next the fine stars of the openwork (modes) are added, corresponding to the red on the diagram, and the final process consists in working a heavy outline around the design, as is indicated by the black. Fig. J shows the finished lace after it has gone through these successive stages.